Clinic nurse vs hospital nurse

[esthomprn]

I was just wondering what the difference between clinic nurse and hospital nurse. I know that hospital nurse do skills such as start IV, put in catheter, drop NG etc etc... BUT what about critical thinking skills and head to toe assessments and teaching as a clinic nurse. When I got a physical at my MD office, it was the MD that did all that stuff. The nurse only did VS and draw blood. I wanted to know cause I am applying for a clinic job that is hiring RN's and if I decide to get my masters or just even work at a hospital, I want to be able to keep those basic skills.

[EarthChild1130]

Well, I can only vouch for what I do as a clinic nurse, but I work at a mental health clinic, so that's probably a totally different animal. Our focus is not 'medical' so I would likely be a bit rusty on all the hospital hands-on stuff (except IM injections...I'm pretty good at those!! LOL). But I do use my critical thinking skills a LOT in dealing with my patients, and we do have our own assessments that we do for patients (including some vitals and head to toe assessments for patients that warrant that kind of assessment).

My focus has always been psych but I believe that psych and med-surg are the two areas of nursing that are at the core of every other area of wellness (if the mind ain't healthy the body won't follow, and vice versa, the way I see it! lol), so I made sure to put in a good year on a med/surg unit to really hone those medical assessment skills since I already had the psych skills. It serves me, and in turn my patients, very well (there have been SEVERAL times that I have had to send a patient from the clinic to the hospital for everything from a stroke to a suspected Lithium toxicity which was confirmed with labs)...I guess in essence what I'm saying is that the skills you use will become better; the ones you don't will get a bit rusty (but no doubt they can be polished up should you decide to call upon that area again)...best of luck to you!

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

Nope not the same thing.

I just came home from giving lots and lots of blood to a septic shock patient who also happened to be on vasopressors. I had this man upside down with a BP of 50 for about two hours before I could get an ICU bed. He's just one of my 8 patients today. I also had a neonate that had apneic spells after surgery--couldn't get him off the vent. Did fine later on. He was a corrected premie, but he still acted premie....that's just my highlight for today--had 5 other unremarkable patients--just a few airway issues (advanced ones) nothing I don't see daily...hypotension, vasovagaling (sp?)...unremarkable....

I think--nah, definitely not the same thing.

[Stacy in North Texas]

I'm RN in an office setting (ob-gyn). The hands on skills I use include: taking vitals, drawing blood, giving injections, and assisting the doc with in-office procedures. I do lots of teaching, but generally the doc does the physical assessments. I do use critical thinking skills when taking many phone calls from patients who have worries or questions. I worked in a hospital setting (L&D) for several years. The skill set is obviously different, but I enjoy office nursing now because of the ability to teach patients and the great hours (no nights or weekends or holidays). You will lose some of your skills working in an office. If you think that will hurt your chances for future hospital employment or for completing your masters, then do take the office job. Best wishes to you!

[marktheawesome]

I'm *guessing* you mean LPN as clinical nurse and RN as hospital nurse? RNs can start IV's, write care plans, etc . . .The LPNs have a few clinical limitations. Anyone certified can draw blood, even techs can do it so that is not LPN/RN specific.

Around here the majority of your nurses in the Doctor's offices are LPN EXCEPT for ped/obgyn/cardiac clinics, they hire mainly RNs. The nurse in your general practitioner's office is probably an LPN.

I'm reading into your question (which, as a nurse we should never do--shame on me) so this might not be applicable.

[esthomprn]

No I meant RN as a clinic nurse and RN at a hospital. I am an RN and I they are hiring RN's at this clinic. It is a diagnostic clinic. They have LPN, RN, and medical assisstance but I was just wondering what an RN would do. Your right, now that I think about it, it was an LPN who did that stuff but I dont want to do that if I apply to this clinic but then again, I really don't care cause I just want a job.

[Stacy in North Texas]

I'm RN in an office setting (ob-gyn). The hands on skills I use include: taking vitals, drawing blood, giving injections, and assisting the doc with in-office procedures. I do lots of teaching, but generally the doc does the physical assessments. I do use critical thinking skills when taking many phone calls from patients who have worries or questions. I worked in a hospital setting (L&D) for several years. The skill set is obviously different, but I enjoy office nursing now because of the ability to teach patients and the great hours (no nights or weekends or holidays). You will lose some of your skills working in an office. If you think that will hurt your chances for future hospital employment or for completing your masters, then do take the office job. Best wishes to you!

Oops, I meant to type "If you think that will hurt your chances for future hospital employment or for completing your masters, then DON"T take the office job." Sorry 'bout that.

[gardengal1, ASN, RN]

In a hospital setting, you have experiences with all kinds of illness/diseases and knowledge of the treatments necessary to bring this patient back to an even keel. This includes lots of technical skills and critical thinking which would then give you an excellent background to become a clinic nurse should you choose to do so. In most clinics, you do not have an opportunity to use your technical skills for IV's, drug titrations, etc so you quickly lose these skills so you need to weigh experience obtained from hospital nursing vs experience from a clinic. My vote would be for at least 2 years of hospital nursing.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I'm *guessing* you mean LPN as clinical nurse and RN as hospital nurse? RNs can start IV's, write care plans, etc . . .The LPNs have a few clinical limitations. Anyone certified can draw blood, even techs can do it so that is not LPN/RN specific.

Around here the majority of your nurses in the Doctor's offices are LPN EXCEPT for ped/obgyn/cardiac clinics, they hire mainly RNs. The nurse in your general practitioner's office is probably an LPN.

I'm reading into your question (which, as a nurse we should never do--shame on me) so this might not be applicable.

Actually, I suspect that the person working with the private practitioner is probably a Medical Assistant; a person who may or may not be certified. Most private offices don't want to pay LPNs, would rather pay the Medical Assistant because they work for less.